[log] what do you mean, open wounds are a problem? [closed]

[ecks]

Characters: Ecks, Watson, and Angel
Location: Building 263
Date: Evening/Night 264
Summary: Ecks is in a bad way, and the resident trauma surgeon gets to be a trauma surgeon.
Warnings: Major hand/skin/tendon injury; descriptions of gangrene

[263: A small office building. It's the sort that looks like it should attach to some larger facility, but whatever it might have connected to is long gone. It's two stories: the first contains a small lobby area, a waiting room, and an area for secretaries. Going upstairs reveals a small honeycomb of eerily empty cubicles. There are desks and chairs in each one, but nothing on any desk or placed on any of the cubicle walls. There's one small one-person office in the back that's similarly empty, and two public bathrooms that work, though the water runs cold. On the wall by the desk in the one-person office, a drawing that says "I love you, Daddy!" has been adhered with cat stickers. "ALPHONSE ELRIC, DAY TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY TWO. IF YOU NEED ANY ASSISTANCE, PLEASE CALL @LELRIC." has been written on a wall.]

Comments

[ecks]

Early evening - arrival

[It is getting harder and harder to keep moving and to carry all her things. Ecks is unhappy about turning around -- she's so close to the tower where Doctor house is being held; she's certain she could reach it in another day or two. Perhaps Doctor Watson can treat her hand well enough to stall the injury so she can go tomorrow -- on some level she realizes that's unlikely; the wound is ugly and smells unpleasant even by her low standards, and she feels increasingly unwell.

She does not have far at all to go today, but it still takes her much of the allotted travel time to cover the distance, the shoulder of her good arm sore from carrying everything that doesn't fit in her backpack for the past week. Ecks does not go far once she is inside; she beelines for the secretaries' area and puts her things down there, sitting down among them to rest until she can find the energy to unpack the softer things and make a nest for sleeping. Her one concession to practicality is to unhook her shovel from her pack, setting it within easy reach.]


Later

[Ecks remains where she placed herself earlier, tablet in her lap now. Every couple of minutes she taps at it, reloading in case there are new messages, but she doesn't stray through the network to find old things to read or music to listen to. She just sits and stares uneasily into space, a silent debate happening behind her blank expression. If someone steps into view she'll adjust her gaze upward and outward after a momentary delay, summoning up just enough mental energy to greet them.]

Hello.

Early Evening

[jumpthegun]

[The last bit of the tunnel had proved particularly treacherous for John and angel. They'd kept hitting piles of debris or gaps that couldn't be jumped. The doctor is frustrated by the delay, but at least he knows where there's shelter to be got to.

John enters the building ahead of Angel, making sure to make some sort of racket for any inhabitants. The Joker is locked up right now, so he's not particularly worried about running into anyone. Anyone except Ecks. He knows she must be close around here based on her last known location. He'll let Angel set up her own camp for the night while he goes to search the building.

The Joker is the only real threat, but that doesn't mean John wants to be surprised by another person in the middle of the night. He finds Ecks quickly behind her desk.]

Hullo, Ecks. How are you doing?

[Casual as ever.]

[ecks]

[She hears him come in; as he approaches he might hear the quiet little sounds of her shifting position and taking up the shovel in readiness. When he comes into view she gently sets it back down on the floor, peering out from where she's tucked herself more or less underneath the desk itself.

The minor injuries to her face from the static (and the unseen ones on her face) are at least healing well; the only one that still stands out is the scab near her hairline. Her right arm, however, is tied in an awkwardly shaped sling torn from a bed sheet and knotted as best she could with one hand, the injured hand itself swathed in more of the same material, stained through in places. She looks pale and tired,
though no complaint shows in her expression or tone of voice.]

Hullo, Doctor Watson. I am not doing very well. Who is with you?

[jumpthegun]

Angel. Mind if I have a look at your hand?

[ecks]

I came back so you could have a look at my hand.

[Still she hangs back for a second before starting to shuffle her way out to stand up.]

[jumpthegun]

That's good. Thank you for that. We'll have a look at the network and see how everyone is doing just as soon as I have that look, all right? How are you feeling?

[ecks]

Wrong. I am feeling wrong.

[She gets to her feet just to sit back down on the edge of the desk, shifting her arm out of the sling and fumbling at the bandage with her other hand.]

They will need help. If Eve opens the trap door and lets them out of the building many of them will not be able to walk.

[jumpthegun]

I know that, Ecks. Let's focus on you for the moment. Can you tell me how exactly you're feeling wrong?

[John puts a hand gently over hers and then pulls a pair of latex gloves from his pocket and pulls those on before attending to the bandage, himself.]

cw getting into the injury/gangrene descriptions; reference to past torture

[ecks]

I cannot tell you exactly how. I feel weak. I often do not want to eat anymore.

[The skin of her good hand is too warm to the touch. She seems content to stop messing with the dressing and simply watch him work -- the bandage is at least competently done, for all that it's torn from a bed sheet and had to be tied one-handed. This close and with the bandage coming open, he can probably smell the wounds, which are strewn along the back of her hand and wrist. Most of the fingers are curled in toward her palm, unmoving.

As he opens the bandage Ecks's breathing goes even and slow, even as she firmly sets her jaw. This is not much. She has stayed still for much worse.]

cw getting into the injury/gangrene descriptions; reference to past torture

[jumpthegun]

Fatigue and a loss of appetite aren't unusual with this kind of injury... and sickness. [He mentally swears because the hand is gone. The scent is the first dead giveaway.] Oh, Ecks...

[John looks at her, trying to brace herself against the pain. All he can think is if she'd just had access to antiseptic... but the Admin wasn't even reachable. There's no way the could have somehow gotten his supply to her, even if he'd thought to take that route.]

I'm gonna get this all cleaned out and we'll redress your wounds with some clean cloth I have. Have you ever seen an injury like this before, though? You don't have to speak. Nodding is fine.

cw getting into the injury/gangrene descriptions; reference to past torture

[ecks]

[Her eyes are on her hand at first, but her gaze slowly shifts up to his face when he doesn't continue immediately. She watches him carefully, comparing everything she can glean from his expression against her mental catalog and struggling to interpret what exactly it means.

She could nod, but she doesn't fully understand the question and so she speaks again instead.]

No. I have seen injuries that impair function but not injuries that get worse instead of better.

cw getting into the injury/gangrene descriptions; reference to past torture

[jumpthegun]

This is an injury that's been infected, Ecks. The bad microbes get into your body through your wounds and make things worse. That's what gangrene is. The cells in your hand are being killed and that's what's causing everything to rot.

We're gonna take care of this, though, all right? [He reaches out in a slow and careful gesture to brush his fingers through some of her hair and push it back behind one of her ears. It's probably a tender gesture the golem's never seen, but John feels so bad for her.] I might not be able to make your hand better, but we can stop the spread of the infection and then you'll start to feel good again, okay?

cw injury/gangrene descriptions

[ecks]

[She watches the approach of his hand but doesn't flinch away, gaze shifting back to his face when she understands what he's doing, even if she doesn't really understand why. He's being very calm, she thinks, and maybe that means it isn't so bad. But not being able to make the hand better is not what she wanted to hear, and she's not at all clear on the conclusions he's already drawn about her situation despite having been told when this started that losing the hand was a possibility.]

All right. How do we get the microbes back out?

cw injury/gangrene descriptions

[jumpthegun]

Antibiotics are a type of medicine that I'd usually start with. But since we don't have access to those, they're not really an option.

[John sighs.]

So what we can do is get everything cleaned out as best we can and see if that helps while we go back toward one of the houses with hot water. We can get you fully cleaned up there and all of your things washed to try to reduce the amount of bad microbes on your body.

If that doesn't help, then I'm afraid we're going to need to cut away the dead tissue. That will take the infection with it. Your hand is where the infection is living and spreading from. It's like cutting off a water source. As soon as it's turned off, nothing comes out, anymore.

cw injury/gangrene descriptions

[ecks]

[Ecks stares at him for a long moment as his words slowly sink in. She shifts her weight backward, away from him, but that is all.]

All of the hand? Two of the fingers still mostly work.

cw injury/gangrene descriptions

[jumpthegun]

[John shakes his head.]

Ecks, if you have a town that's under siege and you can't get any supplies to it, that town is eventually going to die. That's how it is with your hand. Those two fingers might be okay for right now, but the rest of your hand, what they're attached to, needs to come off. I can't just cut around them. There wouldn't be anything to attach them to after.

cw injury/gangrene descriptions

[ecks]

[Well, that's just unacceptably amateur. Resentment coils in her gut.]

My father could do it.

cw injury/gangrene descriptions

[jumpthegun]

Your father isn't here, Ecks, and if he were, he wouldn't have magic. If we were in a proper hospital, there might be a better chance to save part of your hand.

cw injury/gangrene descriptions

[ecks]

[Her gaze slides away. She's listening, but not acknowledging.]

We should clean the wounds.

Do you want to fade here?

[jumpthegun]

Yeah. Let me go get my things.

[He'll leave her so that he can go and grab his supplies.]

sounds good

[ecks]

[She'll wait for him, retreating into her own thoughts. She's typically a pragmatic creature, but she still stubbornly thinks that maybe if they clean the wounds well enough she will not lose her hands.]